Let’s be straight from the jump, I pull no cut cards. Just as angry as I am at the system that has perpetuated the rage that lies within the heart of Black people and its agents I am angry at Black people whose actions take away from the real cause. Charlotte, North Carolina the world is watching.
We are in a monumental battle currently. What happens in today society will be in the history books. Not as a paragraph, but as a full lesson. There are things happening in this “great” nation at the time that appear deplorable to even leaders of third world countries. We as a whole should be ashamed.
When last I sat to write I was furious at yet another unarmed Black man gunned down by the people he employed (through his taxes) to protect him. We must pay attention to situations like what happened to Terrence Crutcher and understand that they are dangerous for us as a society as a whole. We must also take into account what I have said before and will say again, every police shooting is not a murder. Some are justified and that’s just plain and simple.
Which leads me to today. A state of emergency has been declared in Charlotte, North Carolina after a second night of violent “protests” after the police shooting of a Black man. Why was a state of emergency declared? Are the police down there shooting civilians? Are they arresting people for peacefully protesting? No, they aren’t. A state of emergency has been declared because ignorant, thug, angry people with no cause are looting, rioting and shooting each other.
Medics transported three people to the hospital overnight. On shooting victim was reported to have life-threatening wounds who is now on life support.
Protests and violence erupted two days ago following the shooting death of a Charlotte man, Keith Lamont Scott, by a police officer. The officer who shot Scott was immediately identified as Brentley Vinson and he is Black. There are conflicting stories on how Scott ended up dead and that has led to chaos. As usual social media is fueling the discord.
What we do know is Keith Lamont Scott was sitting in his car waiting for his son to be dropped off by the school bus. He was shot dead after an interaction with Charlotte P.D. The officers were on the scene to serve a search warrant on a nearby resident. Police have said that they witnessed Scott exit his car with a firearm and get back inside. At this point they engaged and ordered him to drop his weapon, he did not comply and was shot.
Scott’ daughter immediately took to Facebok, live streaming her grief and argument that her father had simply been reading a book as he waited for her brother to be dropped off. Neighbors say that Scott parked in the same place daily to wait for his son. Police say no book was found on the scene. They also report that a handgun was found near his body.
The full facts are not out on this story, there is no video footage that has been released yet. Scott was not the suspect they had come to the premises for. While there are obviously some facts I need to have before I can even consider how to view this recent shooting, there is an obvious problem here.
North Carolina is an open carry state. If Keith Lamont Scott indeed had a weapon, who cares unless it was an illegal weapon. See like Philando Castille, who died this summer carrying a registered firearm on his body, some citizens understand their right to bear arms. Police can’t kill you for exercising your constitutional rights.
See it is wholly unreasonable for anyone to ask me to accept that a man waiting for his son to get home from school should be shot dead for possessing a firearm. Using one sure, possessing one, get real.
It seems wholly unreasonable for anyone to ask me to believe that in a country where people are allowed to have personal firearms that police have not been better trained to interact with citizens who may be armed. Owning a gun does not make me a thug or criminal and it shouldn’t make me a hashtag either. But this is America in 2016.
Like I said in my last article, police used to be civil servants here to protect us and our way of life, but since the late 50’s police have been widely used to carry out the sick twisted ideas of our government officials. They want to take our guns so bad, it’s all you hear these days, gun control. Seriously though, have we went from wanting to ban automatic weapons to killing citizens in the street for possessing a weapon. That’s what it seems. We have open carry states and laws yet cops don’t seem to ask for paperwork before they shoot.
There are many who simply wonder how the NJ/NY bombing suspect shot 2 cops and still managed to be taken in alive and yet a father waiting for his son is dead.
Something is fundamentally wrong here.
While there are real problems going on and real questions that need to be answered there are those who take the focus away from the issues with nonsense. Like the rioters in Charlotte. These are the things that make people look at movements like Black Lives Matter and say bullshit. It’s hard to get outsiders to understand Black Lives Matters has nothing to do with this type nonsense. Every protestor is not fighting for the same thing. There’s a lot of displaced anger. It’s killing us slowly. It’s poisoning our kids, our hope for the future and our country.
There has to be a better way.
